Sunday, February 2, 2014

Today’s idiom – Spill the Beans

Hi everyone,

I'm writing today’s
entry because a lot of people have asked me to speak about idioms. What is an
idiom? An idiom is “a group of words that have a special meaning that is very
different from the ordinary meaning of the separate words” (from the Longman
Dictionary of American English). Americans (and other native English speakers)
use a great number of idioms. It makes the English language beautiful, varied
and alive. However, it also makes the language learner’s life difficult. But
believe me, it’s a great adventure. In this series within my blog, I’m going to
introduce books, websites, and video channels that can help you. An important
notice: I never use other people thoughts as mine. I always indicate the source.
I can’t show all the idioms, it’s impossible, but I can show you where you can
learn idioms from.

Let’s begin with
the idiom “spill the beans”. What does it mean? According to the Free
Dictionary by Farlax*, it means, “to give away a secret or a surprise / to tell
people secret information/ to let secret information become known". For example:
“There is a surprise party for Heidi on Wednesday. Please don't spill the
beans. / Paul spilled the beans about Heidi's party. / My husband was afraid to
spill the beans about the cost of his purchases. / She found out a secret and
told all of her friends.”

One of my favorite
books (about American idioms) is 101 American English Idioms by Harry Collis.
It gives you funny illustrations by Mario Risso beside examples.

Finally, let’s turn
to Rachel’s English. She has a series on idioms. She always explains what an
idiom means and how to pronounce it. So let’s spill the beans.

“Today I'm going to
go over the pronunciation for the idiom --to spill the beans--. This is what
you say when someone reveals something that was supposed to be kept secret. For
example, my mother's birthday party was supposed to be a surprise, but my
younger brother spilled the beans. Meaning, he accidentally told her about it.

--Spill-- begins
with the S consonant sound, ss pp, followed by the P sound. Both are unvoiced.
Sp- sp-. Then the 'ih' as in 'sit' vowel sound [ɪ], spi-, spi-ll. The dark L
sound where the tongue moves up into position, ihll, spill. --The-- begins with
the voiced TH sound [ð], th, th, tongue comes through the teeth to make that,
the, with the schwa sound [ə]. Spill the-. --Beans-- begins with the voiced consonant
sound, bb, followed by the 'ee' as in 'she' vowel sound [i]. Bea-, bea-nn.
Tongue moves up into position for the N, where the front part of the tongue
touches the roof of the mouth, bean, nn, zz. And finally, the Z voiced
consonant sound. Beans, beans, spill the beans. Spill and beans are both the
stressed words in this phrase. Spill the beans.”

I’m sure
Gardeniafly also uses a lot of idioms. What do you think about idioms?

„Knowing how to use idioms is quite tricky.
It's hard to find the right situations in which to practice them. If you use
too many idioms when you're speaking, it can make you sound a bit 'corny' (a
little silly and over-the-top sounding). However, they are good to knowing
because they can add 'flavor' to your conversations and make you sound more
like a native. Plus, you can impress your English speaking friends! Don't try
to just memorize a list of idioms. Just pick them up slowly as you hear them.”

Gardeniafly is not
searching new students any more. Next time, you can read an interview with her. If you need someone to teach, I can help you or you can
register on italki.

Bye – bye,

Attila

Notes:

* The definitions
and examples are from the Free Dictionary by Farlex.
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/ (based on McGraw-Hill Dictionary of
American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs, Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms,
Cambridge Idioms Dictionary, 2nd edition), from the 800 most commonly used
idiom in America by Paul S, Gruber, and from the 101 American English Idioms by
Harry Collis – illustrated by Mario Risso.

"Writing is an art form that reaches a multitude of people from all walks of life; different cultures, and age group. Because of this, some things may mean ‘this’ while it means ‘that’ to another. Choosing the words to use is the key to keeping your readers riveted to what you have written. You have to ‘tailor make’ every written material according to your targeted audience – your readers."

These thoughts can be found in the blog entitled "Bloggy Woggy" and available here: http://www.coreforceworldwide.com/are-you-trying-to-figure-out-the-words/